Estate agents

Author
Discussion

andy g bmth

4,916 posts

230 months

Thursday 15th March 2007
quotequote all
jo strummer said:
andy g bmth said:
Personally mate, I wouldn't bother.

I was an estate agent for 3 years and got head hunted by a corporate from an independent and in both there is not enough money in it for the hassle and timescale of getting paid.

In Bournemouth where house prices (therefore commisson) is high, an average branch turns over anywhere between 70 & 150k. to do 150k which is the corporates average, you have circa 5 staff, massive marketing costs, mail shots etc

Its not worth the uncertainty of your own business for rewards on offer.

good luck

Andy


Mate I don't know what agencies you worked in but t/o £70-150K? Don't you mean net profit after all costs of £150K? Spicers, Sequence, Countrywide have all announced massive profits in EA and I can tell you now they don't average the figures you quote.

As regards successful online EA can't think of many examples of successful operations, portals guiding you to EA from online but all the agents have n online presence now.


Countrywide has 1100 branches across the country so if they are not making massive profit they are doing something wrong, their individual branches range from 125k to 250k (i have that on good authority), a small independant will be hitting the figures I quoted above unless you are talking about the London area let alone an Internet based only agency.

In principle its a good idea but in reality there isn't enough money in it for me to make me want to risk my financial future.

Seany88

Original Poster:

1,245 posts

221 months

Thursday 15th March 2007
quotequote all
Fair enough, was just considering it as a side. Back to the drawing board...

gregg13

65 posts

227 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
Don't forget that Countrywide had many years of making loses thorugh their agencies!

They are only now in negotiations for their sale to the American's due to their current profits and positive borrowing position.

dick dastardly

8,315 posts

264 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
I have a friend who started an estate agent last year. Despite having a huge contact list from day 1 and being the type of person who could sell cocaine to the pope, she is having trouble making good money from it. Not only that she works 7am to 8pm seven days a week.

I work in the property finance game so deal a lot with estate and letting agents and most of them are complaining about the lack of business. Seems that the national operations are really hurting the smaller guys.

Not wanting to be the prophet of doom but think about it really carefully and do your research. If you do go for it then you may be in for a lot of work for little return but hopfully not.

anonymous-user

55 months

Sunday 18th March 2007
quotequote all
I don't know where these figures are coming from but when I worked for one of the big national agents, my annual target was £175k (of fee income) per annum, which I usually managed to exceed and our office fee income was circa £900k. £150k for an office seems very low to me.

minimax

11,984 posts

257 months

Monday 19th March 2007
quotequote all
andy g bmth said:
Personally mate, I wouldn't bother.

I was an estate agent for 3 years and got head hunted by a corporate from an independent and in both there is not enough money in it for the hassle and timescale of getting paid.

In Bournemouth where house prices (therefore commisson) is high, an average branch turns over anywhere between 70 & 150k. to do 150k which is the corporates average, you have circa 5 staff, massive marketing costs, mail shots etc

Its not worth the uncertainty of your own business for rewards on offer.

good luck

Andy



you mean per month, right?

in even the smallest of agencies in Derby city centre, turnover of less than 25k per month was unheard of.

in a middling size agency in an affluent area of nottingham we were making 50k per month and when I was in london a shit month was 100k


minimax

11,984 posts

257 months

Monday 19th March 2007
quotequote all
jo strummer said:
andy g bmth said:
Personally mate, I wouldn't bother.

I was an estate agent for 3 years and got head hunted by a corporate from an independent and in both there is not enough money in it for the hassle and timescale of getting paid.

In Bournemouth where house prices (therefore commisson) is high, an average branch turns over anywhere between 70 & 150k. to do 150k which is the corporates average, you have circa 5 staff, massive marketing costs, mail shots etc

Its not worth the uncertainty of your own business for rewards on offer.

good luck

Andy


Mate I don't know what agencies you worked in but t/o £70-150K? Don't you mean net profit after all costs of £150K? Spicers, Sequence, Countrywide have all announced massive profits in EA and I can tell you now they don't average the figures you quote.

As regards successful online EA can't think of many examples of successful operations, portals guiding you to EA from online but all the agents have n online presence now.



I used to work for SpicerHaart, if you can follow their business model you'll be doing well

1 chap, owns the whole lot including woltons surveyors and mortgages direct

jamesuk28

2,176 posts

254 months

Monday 19th March 2007
quotequote all
minimax said:
jo strummer said:
andy g bmth said:
Personally mate, I wouldn't bother.

I was an estate agent for 3 years and got head hunted by a corporate from an independent and in both there is not enough money in it for the hassle and timescale of getting paid.

In Bournemouth where house prices (therefore commisson) is high, an average branch turns over anywhere between 70 & 150k. to do 150k which is the corporates average, you have circa 5 staff, massive marketing costs, mail shots etc

Its not worth the uncertainty of your own business for rewards on offer.

good luck

Andy



Mate I don't know what agencies you worked in but t/o £70-150K? Don't you mean net profit after all costs of £150K? Spicers, Sequence, Countrywide have all announced massive profits in EA and I can tell you now they don't average the figures you quote.

As regards successful online EA can't think of many examples of successful operations, portals guiding you to EA from online but all the agents have n online presence now.



I used to work for SpicerHaart, if you can follow their business model you'll be doing well

1 chap, owns the whole lot including woltons surveyors and mortgages direct


Yes but is he happy? rolleyes

Edited by jamesuk28 on Tuesday 20th March 13:15

minimax

11,984 posts

257 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
i'd imagine so

KingRichard

10,144 posts

233 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
andy g bmth said:
Personally mate, I wouldn't bother.

I was an estate agent for 3 years and got head hunted by a corporate from an independent and in both there is not enough money in it for the hassle and timescale of getting paid.

In Bournemouth where house prices (therefore commisson) is high, an average branch turns over anywhere between 70 & 150k. to do 150k which is the corporates average, you have circa 5 staff, massive marketing costs, mail shots etc

Its not worth the uncertainty of your own business for rewards on offer.

good luck

Andy


What utter bollox. You were obviously working for a complete shitter!

I worked for both corporates and indies. I was latterly a mortgage broker with both as well. 150k?!!! yikes

Very good branches will be between 400-600k. Good branches in affluent areas (Think West London, areas rammed full of premiership footballers etc...) will be over £1m turnover.

The margins are quite low. And if you start up with no experience, you WILL get flamed by the local agents, and you WILL get a bad rep very quickly if you don't know what you're doing.

I know it seems like a great idea but EA can be bloody hard work and you will need a huge amount of experience before you can manage the team you will undoubtedly need to get up and running.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and all that. But get some experience, as others have said.

KingRichard

10,144 posts

233 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
minimax said:
i'd imagine so


hehe

He's got a fair few quid hasn't he?!

One geezer who owns Arun Estates, is rumoured to have a 50 car strong garage... Nice eh?

mcflurry

9,101 posts

254 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
rightmove.com will rule supreme

KingRichard

10,144 posts

233 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
mcflurry said:
rightmove.com will rule supreme


Except it's owned by Countrywide...

gregg13

65 posts

227 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
KingRichard said:
mcflurry said:
rightmove.com will rule supreme


Except it's owned by Countrywide...

and HBOS

KingRichard

10,144 posts

233 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
quotequote all
gregg13 said:
KingRichard said:
mcflurry said:
rightmove.com will rule supreme


Except it's owned by Countrywide...

and HBOS


Oh yeah paperbag